


In This Twilight

by Trina_EG



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Chara has their own fun with resets, Gen, Mute!Gaster, Violence, pre-game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 09:01:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5579445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trina_EG/pseuds/Trina_EG
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is no more time. Gaster is desperate to salvage something, anything, of his knowledge before the reset swallows it all again. </p><p>Pre-game.</p><p>Note 6/23/16: This story has been rewritten and re-purposed for the story Lemniscate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In This Twilight

ENTRY 38:

THERE IS A LOOP. TIME LINES ERRATICALLY STOPPING AND STARTING AGAIN. THE WORLD ENDS, AND THEN IT IS STARTED ANEW. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I WRITTEN THIS ENTRY? HAVE I WRITTEN THIS ENTRY EVERY LOOP? ARE THE NUMBER OF LOOPS GREATER THAN THE NUMBER OF TIMES I HAVE FIGURED IT OUT? THE HUMAN CHILD IS KILLING EVERYONE IN THEIR PATH. 

THIS NEEDS TO STOP. 

I DESPISE WORKING UNDER ASSUMPTIONS. THE MOST ADVANTAGEOUS SITUATION AFFORDS ME THREE DAYS.

Dr. W. D. Gaster looked from the text on the screen to the softly bubbling vat to the right. Inside floated a human skeleton, short in stature and entirely dead in every sense of the word. For now, that is. If one removed a monster soul from the body, both the soul and the body would quickly disintegrate. In special instances, the body of a monster would disintegrate and the soul can be absorbed, or otherwise specially contained.

However, when a human’s soul is removed, the body and soul remain. The soul can be absorbed or contained, and the body is left. Without the soul, the body quickly begins to deteriorate, all withered away except for the bones. These remain, and like the ashes of a fallen monster, it contains something of a… residue. Not exactly soul, but something close to it. ‘Essence’, for lack of a better word. Returning a soul to the remains; impossible for monsters. For humans, a theory, that Gaster was about to put to the test. 

His mouth twisted in a grimace at the sheer amount of information he did not have evidence for. The ability to reset this word is a trait innate in humans while in the Underground; an educated guess. This trait is contained within the soul and not lost in the body during the process of decay; an assumption. This ability would be able to be negated by another human with equal ability; a hope at best. That this dead human, this weapon, he was creating would not commit the same actions as Chara… Well. That was very nearly a fairy tale.

He was out of options. This was the best he had, and of course, the reset would erase his memory if this were a failure. Whatever small comfort that was. The scientist stood and walked to the smaller container that held the human soul, light blue and almost crystalline. He checked the tubes and wires attached to the lid with all the tenderness of a parent holding a child, then moved to a console. It was filled with dials, switches and a slowly rotating paper feed that showed the peaks and valleys of a rapidly moving needle. 

Dr. Gaster adjusted two of the knobs, altering the readings ever so slightly so the peaks on the paper feed were once more perfectly in sync. He returned to his chair without a sound, glancing to the screen and watching the cursor blink at him. The child was through Snowdin and moving through Waterfall at this point. Some would fight, many would run and they would be the ones to survive for now. Gaster himself could be among those fighting, attempting to save as many as he could before falling to Chara. With an infinite amount of coin flips, it would only be a matter of time before Chara’s coin landed on the edge. 

Gaster didn’t want to deal in coin flips, this was his long game. His eyes went to the empty sockets of the skeleton. It was Gaster’s weapon, his best one, his fly in the ointment. If this did work, if it did remember through the resets, then Gaster would be able to progress beyond this limited amount of time allotted to him. He would make it work for him, it would have nowhere else to turn to afterall. If it didn’t want to be used, well… that was just too bad.

\---

ENTRY 39:

I HAVE LESS THAN AN HOUR. THE CHILD KNOWS HOW TO DEFEAT THEIR OPPONENTS TOO QUICKLY. I WILL NOT COUNT ON THE CHILD SKIPPING MY LABORATORY. SYNCHRONICITY HAS BEEN ACHIEVED OVER NIGHT, YET THERE IS NO ESTABLISHMENT. 

THERE IS ALSO NO POINT TO WRITING THIS. NO ONE WILL SEE THIS AGAIN. THIS MAY AS WELL BE A FUCKING PAPER WEIGHT.

The scientist put his head in his shaking hands, panting softly as he dug his palms against his eyes. He was sure he hadn’t slept, though he couldn’t be sure he had been awake the entire twenty hours. Gaster had spent the entire time making fine tune adjustments and sitting, watching, waiting. Now he was out of time, the soul was in the same vat as the skeleton, but there was no sign of life.

Jerking to a stand, the backs of his legs knocked over the chair as he moved to the panel of switches and knobs one final time. He needed something to happen, and he needed it to happen now. Glancing behind him to the vat he knew too much power all at once would crack the soul and destroy the bones. 

However. There was a mass murderer loose. No one’s death mattered. Everything would be forgotten. The last moments of conscious, progressive thought were coming to a close. The world was about to go cold and die. Gaster laughed silently, his hands shaking as he moved them to the knobs and turned them both higher. Cheers to the end of the world.

The sound of glass shattering whipped his head around, but then he saw it was only the beginnings of a spider webbed crack in the vat. It seemed to hold for now, at least enough to hold enough fluid til the reset. There was another noise, on top of all of that. The sound of power being redirected, of an elevator grinding to life in another room, the subtle noise of someone making their way into the underground levels. 

Gaster turned and ran out of the room, shoving the door closed on that particular lab. His hands glowed purple as two disembodied ones materialized behind the door. They grabbed the bar next to it and swung it down into the braces. Then, just for good measure, he grabbed the terminal he was using to log his progress, the glorified paper weight. 

The scientist grit his teeth as he felt the weight of the machine in his muscles, summoning more hands to help with the distribution of the load. Even still, he felt sweat starting to bead on his scalp as the piercing sound of metal on stone rang from the other side of the door. By the time it was in position he was panting hard against the cold wall, his ghostly hands dissipated and he worked to catch his breath. 

There was no more time. He headed up the stairs at a jog, then to the right. If this were any other time, he would be in his study, probably listening to music and reading. He needed to make sure the child was none the wiser. Running to the door, he put his hand on the latch and froze in his tracks. A heartbeat of silence, then he took a deep breath. He grinned as he let it out slowly, turning his head to look at the tiny human at the end of the hallway. 

“Ohh~ Last time I was here I found you in your study!” The child’s voice didn’t match their actions, it was almost innocent sounding. It didn’t belong to a knife wielding terror standing in his laboratory. Gaster turned to face the child, bringing his hands in front of him, fingers moving through the signs, ‘Is that not odd? Is this the only time I figured out what you were doing before you arrived? Oh no. Maybe I will stop you this time.’ 

The human child laughed sweetly, tipping their head and pointing the sharp knife at him, “I like it when you’re like this. Sometimes you’re really gosh darned serious and you just don’t try hard enough. But when you’re super duper arrogant, you make me laugh!” The child’s face twisted into something dark and dangerous, their next words nearly hissed, “I h a v e m o r e f u n s t a b b i n g y o u.”

Gaster slowly returned his hands to his sides, a brief violet light flickered in each and turned into a sharp scalpel. Ghostly hands materialized in front of him as his eyes began to glow the same violet color, signing once more, ‘You can try.’ The ghostly hands materialized more implements, a bone saw and a drill in either. As much as he put on a show he was still panting softly; there was no way he was getting out of this fight alive. He never had gotten out of it alive in the first place, had he?

The child giggled softly and sprinted forward, side stepping the drill that came plunging down on top of them and stabbing the knife toward the scientists leg, catching nothing but air. Gaster’s cuts were precision, targeting tendons and arteries, tiny areas on the tiny human that would be crippling if one of them connected. Gaster dodged the kitchen knife wielded by the relentless child, backing away slowly and stopping their momentum with sudden, crashing hacks of the bone saw. 

Gaster panted heavily by the time the child seemed to be getting frustrated with the fight. He barely moved his leg in time to avoid a sweep, but the child’s hand was close. There it was. His scalpel found the wrist tendon, and before the knife clattered to the floor his other was plunged into their cartoid artery. Blood sprayed as Gaster wrenched the bla-

 

 

-ialized in front of him as his eyes began to glow the same violet color, signing once more, ‘You can try.’ The ghostly hands materialized more implements, a bone saw and a drill in either. As much as he put on a show he was still panting softly; there was no way he was getting out of this fight alive. He never had gotten out of it alive in the first place, had he?

The child growled softly and sprinted forward, side stepping the drill that came plunging down on top of them and stabbing the knife toward the scientists leg, catching nothing but air. Gaster’s cuts were precision, targeting tendons and arteries, tiny areas on the tiny human that would be crippling if one of them connected. Gaster dodged the kitchen knife wielded by the relentless child, backing away slowly and stopping their momentum with sudden, crashing hacks of the bone saw.

Gaster panted heavily as he continued to move back down the hall, stabbing forward with the drill to stop the pursuit for just a moment, to no avail. There it was. The scientist was off balance and couldn’t move in time to avoid the crippling pain of the kitchen knife going through his thigh. He dropped to his knee with a grunt, and then there was a squish. He wasn’t even entirely sure if it… hurt. Not immediately, not until the blade was ruthlessly wrenched out of his gut and he doubled over. 

The scientists weapons disappeared along with his floating hands, his real ones pressed against the floor to stop himself from falling forward. Gaster couldn’t scream the pain that tore through his body from his gut, but the hitched breathing and soft choking would have been enough to speak volumes. He brought a shaky hand in front of him, lifting his head to look the child in the eyes, ‘W-h-a-t-’

“You talk too long,” they called over their shoulder, already down the hall and headed toward the door. They opened the door and let it slam shut, cutting off the light that streamed from it and plunging the room back into its soft glow emanating from the machinery. Gaster pressed a hand to the wound, rolling slowly onto the ground, his back against the edge of the wall. 

This… he almost would have loved to die right then, but the pain was creeping slowly. He could feel it pressing against his soul, slowly gripping it. Hoping for a quick death… he never thought he would want that. The cold stone of the floor pressed against his cheek as his body curled in on itself. ...But the human soul. 

Gaster gritted his teeth and pushed himself up slowly til his back was against the wall, panting harder now. His eyes were fixed on the stairs leading back down to his weapon and he gave a wry grin. This… was either going to save all of them or end up being a terrible mistake. Or it would fail and there would be nothing at all. He supposed it didn’t matter, he wouldn’t be around long enough to find out. 

Humans were… bad news. Gaster could hope this one, if the machine succeeded and it awoke, would be different. Still, he couldn’t quite shake a feeling as he stared up into the darkness. Gaster had a feeling that this one would also be the death of him.

 

 

Gaster had to give this much to humans, they had beautiful singing voices. Not only this, but they seemed to get along fairly well without magic. The record had been found in the debris that sometimes fell into the Underground, surprisingly intact, and it hadn’t taken the scientist long to figure out what exactly it was. Tiny grooves on a glass disc made with a fine needle that, when vibrated at the right frequency, could reproduce sound. 

His hand stopped tapping the arm of the chair as the soprano held a note, bringing it back down to tap to the beat when the note ended. Reaching for his cup of licorice tea he took a quick sip of the hot liquid, then set down the cup and turned the page, rocking the chair ever so gently as he balanced it on two legs, his own feet against the desk.

“...Hey.”

The scientist jerked at the sudden voice in his room, twisting his head to look back at it. Which ended up being a terrible idea, losing his balance on the chair and quickly following it backward to the floor. The book flew through the air and smacked against the opposite wall, though for all his apparent gracelessness Gaster was on his feet again before it hit the floor. 

It was… a skeleton. A rather short skeleton, relatively speaking of course. It wore nothing except a look of confusion as Gaster scrambled to recover from his embarrassing acrobatics. He stood stark still for a few moments before he pointed to the skeleton and turned both hands up and out. The skeleton’s browbone furrowed, opening his mouth before Gaster shook his head, brought the edge of his palm to his open one, then pointed to the skeleton, to the floor, then again turned his palms up and out.

“...What are y-”

Oh for fuck- Gaster pressed his hand to his face, sheer agitation in his movements before going to his desk. He grabbed a blank piece of paper, scratched some words in charcoal and held it up for the skeleton to see. ‘Who? Why here? HOW here?’

“...Alright,” the stranger nodded slowly, looking back to the scientist, “Yanno, all fair questions, I get it, you seem to think I know more than I do. But first things first, buddy.” He pointed to himself, “I’m naked.” 

Gaster’s frustrated expression grew even more incredulous, but fine, the skeleton was definitely naked. He gave an exasperated huff, scanning the room like he was suddenly in a bizarre land where nothing made sense anymore. He spotted his laboratory coat hanging from a hook, snatched it off and handed it back as he stayed turned away from the stranger.

The skeleton grabbed the offered coat, sliding it on as carefully as he could, “Thanks.” It didn’t even come close to closing around the large skeleton, so he put both hands in the pockets and shifted the whole thing up to cover his pelvis, making the fabric pull awkwardly around his frame.  
Gaster turned back around and picked up the paper, holding it up again, which just made the skeleton grin a little, “Alright, I get it, yeah, relax. Next thing you know you’re gonna be shaking a whole tree at me.” 

He had just about enough of this skeleton in front of him that seemed to not give a damn that this level was not supposed to be accessed by anyone, much less anyone Gaster didn’t personally know. He considered forcing the stranger to leave but paused when they grew much more serious and looked out to the hallway. 

“...I don’t know the answers to any of those questions, pal. Don’t know why I don’t feel more worried about that. I do know,” he looked back to Gaster, meeting his eyes. “A minute ago you died out in that hallway. Next thing I know, I hear music and you’re in here.”

He would almost think the stranger was joking if he hadn’t looked so dead serious about it compared to only a few moments ago. Perhaps the skeleton was insane? Or… no, he couldn’t think of any other explanation beyond that. Gaster looked to the paper he had been writing on, then back to the skeleton. He was still serious, and oddly calm for someone insane.

Gaster reached for the charcoal again, scratched out all three questions and wrote a new one underneath. He held out the paper to the odd skeleton once more. ‘What happened?’


End file.
